Political graffiti

As a slogan for the national day of celebration, the spirit seems all wrong.

F--- Aussie Pride.

But these words, disturbing and confronting, are painted in bold letters on a wall in Melbourne's north - at least, that's how it read until a few days ago, when some other berk altered the message entirely by changing the A into an M and scrubbing out the R.

The defaced property hints at deeper community tensions in the suburbs, a rejection of flag-waving jingoism and then disparaging the Muslim community in turn. Yet graffiti of this kind, with a political edge, offensive or tame, has largely disappeared from Melbourne's streetscapes, overrun by the tedious sameness of vandals' tags.

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Where once a ''Menzies the warmonger'' or ''Howard Australian workplace terrorist'' adorned bridges or rooftops, nowadays even in an election year people prefer a Facebook wall to scrawl an angry message across or turn to Twitter to spray an outburst at digital passersby.

Political graffiti - in the sense of a comment on big social issues of the moment - is rare and harder to find. ''In the '70s and '80s, a lot of graffiti was politically based,'' said Andrew Bourke, now a professional artist with a background in graffiti.

''I don't really think politics has that great an impact now, not as an expression of interest or even disinterest.''

Compared to a decade ago, when inflamed passions before the Iraq invasion led protesters to scale the Sydney Opera House and paint ''No War'' in giant red letters, the general malaise about the quality of Australian politics has also led to a sparsity of graffiti.

On a steel fence in Tullamarine, ''Tony Abbott is a misogynist'' is a vestige of the gender wars in Federal Parliament last year, as is a Julia Gillard likeness to the American wartime propaganda poster, Rosie the Riveter, pasted above a waffle cafe in Degraves Street in the city.

But mostly, politics doesn't make it to the streets. ''Everyone just wants to get their name out,'' said Jordan Todero, 16, as he spray-painted a wall in Hosier Lane in the CBD.

''Australia is not really important, you know. It's America that's always in the news.''

Expert Lachlan MacDowall from the University of Melbourne has studied street graffiti and sees a growing difference between the often angry or overtly political slogans found in the outer suburbs and the hipster street art of the inner city. ''It's partly to do with the way street art has evolved, experimenting with different mediums, and a focus on the visual means the political message is often found in images rather than words.''

Victoria Police statistics show graffiti crime on public transport doubled in the past year, though it is unclear whether this is a result of more instances or better detection. In damage to private property, graffiti rose by 10 per cent.

''We certainly have spates of it,'' Sergeant Duncan Browne from Victoria Police said. But while police don't keep a database of graffiti content, he agrees anecdotally there is less of the politic type.

''There are other avenues to vent your spleen,'' he said, with social media offering a platform where others can respond.

''How do you do that with something written on a wall that just says 'Gillard sucks' . . . or 'Free the refugees'. You lose the chance to engage.''

220 comments

Racism isn't mutually exclusive with being white. It's a shame that there is the need for this segregation within communities. We should not have religious schools - Christian, Catholic or oherwise. If we truly want a untied community & Australia then we must promote it to our children. Separating them in schools from a young age does nothing to help the situation. Well that and the racist scumbags that still exist in this country on all sides it makes things tough in my opinion.

Commenter

Dale

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 6:34AM

@Dale

I agree.

Commenter

J. Fraser

Location

Queensland

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 6:57AM

My son goes to a catholic school. There are also Jewish kids there and Muslim kids, a couple of Hindus and Asian kids from a variety of religions. Whilst they are in the minority it does show that we are seeing a widening of school intake in schools of a religious denomination. Your comments indicate your views are trapped in the mindset of the sixties.

Commenter

Open Learning

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 6:58AM

I agree. I think it would be great to have a single school system for everyone. The thing is that some would simply home school their children. Segregation seems to be a choice that people choose. Not in all cases but some...

Commenter

Blackout

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:00AM

Catholics are Christians...you can tell by the whole...y'know, Christ thing :P

Commenter

Jimmy

Location

Melbs

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:06AM

Where did you read racism in this graffiti? The article was focused on political graffiti.

Commenter

No Focus

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:09AM

@Open Learning - Is your "Catholic" school the norm or the exception to the rule. I think it probably has more to do with the school requiring attendees. I am quite certain that if the Catholic school your child attends had an over abundance of catholic attendees/applicants they would receive priority enrollments over other demographics. I will grant you the point that this is not the case and the school accepts all no matter their creed. It is still segregation. My opinion is a realistic appraisal of the majority as I see it. There should be no religious schools period. Only Private and Public education to see the better integration of the various nationalities that now call this nation home. You have to build friendships with other nationalities to improve relationships. You can't do that if your children go to a school where the majority of the attendees are the same race/religion/background.

Commenter

Dale

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:22AM

In most parts of the world, inclduing in Australia, there is a well known 1300 year old world domination political movement diosguised as a religion, which is responsible for nearly all the cyurrent inter and intra national problems, trouble-making and human atrocities, including the widespread murder and killing of their fellow religionists. Most of their schools are funded by external powers mostly middle East would be caliphs promoting that world domination poltical movement. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "Christian and Catholic or otherwise having their own schools". However. like Pavlov's dog, some people with an agenda, regardless of the relevancy always bring up the same simplistic solution for the world's problems. Address the real problem and do not waste time and resources adressing irrelevant issues.

Commenter

The Beak

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:26AM

Parents don't send their kids to Catholic, Jewish, Islamic or state schools out of some inherent need to segregate them. They do so out of the desire (right or wrong) for them to be educated in a certain way or according to a certain philosophy. Don't be so quick to do away with a basic freedom like choice out of some misguided notion that perceived sameness will solve our cultural woes.

Commenter

brian

Date and time

January 25, 2013, 7:37AM

I agree Dale, we're all the same species and whilst our cultural heritage is an interesting point for discussion I struggle to fathom how its something which can divide us.

@Jimmy, A friend of mind used to be a "Christian" Christian, and he was deeply offended when I said Catholics were Christians